Athletic Cubs edge scrappy Hawks

Friday

NEVADA — Being long and athletic paid off for Nevada in a thrilling 45-44 victory over South Hamilton Friday at the Nevada High School Field House.

The Cubs used pressure defense to control a large portion of the game and withstood a late large to improve to 2-4 overall and 2-1 in the Heart of Iowa Conference.

Nevada opened the season 0-4, including respective 55-53 and 47-44 setbacks to Carlisle and Boone in its first two games. This time, the Cubs did just enough to hold on for their second win in a row.

“It kind of sucks losing by what we won (by) tonight,” Nevada senior point guard Amanda Fortmann said. “So it kind of felt good to get back at it and be the ones to actually win.”

Nevada took a 41-39 lead on a Kacie Rewert basket midway through the fourth quarter. Two Addi Vorm baskets eventually pushed that advantage to five points, but South Hamilton clawed back within one on baskets by Sydney Friest and Emma Lewis.

The Hawks had two golden chances in the final 15 seconds when Nevada missed the front end of two 1-and-1 opportunities, but Lewis was off on a drive after the first Cub miss, and on the Hawks' final possession, Aneesa Balderas had to rush up a shot from the corner and was off the mark.

“I just told the girls sometimes the shots are going to fall, and sometimes they aren't,” South Hamilton head girls' basketball coach Mark Henderson said. “I wish the shots would've fallen, but I was happy with the way they played.”

Nevada's length played a role in South Hamilton's inability to get good looks down the stretch. It also helped the Cubs force the Hawks into mistakes with a new 2-1-2 press to go along with their 1-2-1-1 press.

“We've been working on our press and our 1-3-1 defense, and we've been getting better at jumping passes,” said Rewerts, a 6-foot forward. “I think we got a lot of steals this game, and that really helped us on the offensive side.”

Rewerts paced Nevada with a game-high 19 points. Mikayla Long was tough inside on the glass and scored three points and Aubrey Gibson and Amelea Jones chipped in four points apiece down low.

The Cubs exceled down low despite being without another lengthy, athletic defender in 6-0 sophomore Sydney Mosinski.

“We have lots of posts and we like to mix it up,” Rewerts said. “It's really fun to work with a lot of different people. We have so much fun being down there and trying different things.”

Vorm finished with 10 points and Fortmann five on the perimeter.

Rylee Woodall led South Hamilton with 14 points. Friest had 11 points, Lewis netted nine and Balderas scored eight for the Hawks, who fell to 2-4 overall and 1-2 in the conference.